1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to devices for animating a doll, and in particular to a platform on whose stage is mounted a doll resembling a figure skater, the platform housing a finger-actuated mechanism causing the doll to spin and be lifted above the stage to execute a figure skating movement.
2. Status of Prior Art
A typical doll is a small figure resembling a human being, such as an infant, a child or an adult which may be of either sex. The doll is surely the most popular of all toys and it can trace its history back to ancient times, for Egypt, Rome and Greece have left well preserved dolls of clay and other durable materials.
Doll technology is now highly sophisticated, for dolls are now available that are articulated, bendable and stretchable and can be caused to assume any desired posture.
An activity that holds great fascination for children is dancing, and children therefore seek to make their otherwise inanimate doll appear to be dancing. To render a doll danceable, the Jupiter patent 2,754,121 provides a large doll whose size approaches that of a small child, the doll having articulated arms and legs and a pair of feet provided with straps to receive the feet of a child dancing with the doll.
In Jupiter, the doll and child together form a ballroom couple, one hand of the child holding the corresponding hand of the doll, the other hand of the child holding the doll about its waist while the other hand of the doll rests on the shoulder of the child. Since the feet of the doll are linked to those of the child, and the child and doll are holding each other, the child and doll then appear to be dancing as a couple.
The present invention also seeks to make a doll dance, but not by having the child dance with the doll as in the Jupiter patent, for then the doll's size must be close to that of the child holding it, but by having the doll dance on a platform or stage.
A form of dancing that in recent years has become highly popular is figure skating in which a skater dances on an ice rink to music and executes balletic movements and creates new ones involving spins, lifts and jumps. One dramatic figure skating movement that takes skill to execute is where the skater spins on the ice and then leaps upwardly so as to spin in the air, the skater then landing on the ice without a loss of balance.
For a toy to be most effective as a plaything, it must be capable of sustaining a child's interest and to this end the behavior of the toy should depend on how it is manipulated by the child. Thus the Gunther et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,374 discloses a platform on which a doll is mounted, the platform having a battery powered motor mechanism to animate the doll. Such devices have little play value, for there is no interaction between the player who simply switches on the mechanism to operate the doll.
In the Kimodo U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,988, a doll mounted above a platform is caused to twirl to simulate dancing. For this purpose, use is made of a thumb-operated flywheel operatively coupled to the doll. In the Kimura U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,206 the doll is turned about an axle rotated by a hand-cranked mechanism.